Date Night

It was great to get out last night. We enjoyed a great dinner. We started with an order of fried green tomatoes with a shrimp remoulade as well as an order of hush puppies with a basil mayo. For our entrees Amanda got pan-seared scallops and I had venison meatloaf. We finished with a hunk of chocolate cheesecake accompanied with carmelized bananas.

The rest of the evening was not as glamorous. We took advantage of the babysitting to hit the thrift store where I got some new sweaters and shirts. It's nice to be able to retire some of the ancient shirts I have that are full of holes. We actually ended up staying out until nearly 9:00 PM! That's pretty late for us.

Going Out

Amanda and I have a date tonight at a restaurant in Durham she wants to try. I'll let you know how it was tomorrow. Either way, a bad meal without the kids beats being home with them!

Amanda went to Lily's school for "book and a bite" today. That's where she reads to them at lunchtime. I stayed home with Noah and we played some video games. Well, he watched me anyway. Lily also had an assembly. I guess today was a North Carolina sports theme and they sang Carolina-related songs as a class. Of course, she can't ever remember what they all are.

We've decided that Noah is teething rather than sick. We give him some Motrin before bed and that does the trick. He and Lily are such Motrin junkies though. They love any excuse to have it. I remember feeling the same way about children's Tylenol. I loved that cherry flavor!

Between the Lines

Amanda recently discovered that Lily's door had been tagged with her name in ink. Amanda came up with a good idea for a consequence. Lily had to write lines last night. Specifically, she had to write "Ink goes on paper" 20 times. It took her a while and she certainly didn't enjoy it, but we hope that she got the message. Of course, she also has to clean the ink off of her door, but the magic eraser should do the trick for that.

Noah has added a new word to his repertoire. According to Amanda, he said "apple" yesterday while they were enjoying a fruit cup at Chick Fil-A. The bad news is that he had a very rough night last night. Amanda thinks he is getting a cold. He was very snotty and very needy. Amanda did make it out to run this morning though.

I managed to put the homework on hold for one night so Amanda and I could watch Fireproof together. It was hard to watch for a couple of reasons. One is that it is not the best movie ever made. It's not terrible, but not the greatest acting or directing. The more significant reason is that it reminded me too much of what a selfish jerk I used to be and still can be. However, for that reason alone I think it should be mandatory viewing for all married couples. It is a great reminder that love is more of an action than a feeling, which is a reminder that I need frequently.

A Noah Lexicon

I thought I'd give a working guide to Noah-speak:

b'lewn = balloon. The key is not opening your mouth when you say this.
ho-ho = hot cocoa. The first h should be guttural like the h in "Hannukah."
moahr = more. He knows that this will usually get him more food.
lee-lee = Lily. This is how he says big sister's name.
bah-bahll = ball. This can really refer to just about any spherical object.
uh...huh = I want that. This must be pronounced with a distinct down-up in pitch. Always accompanied by pointing.
dah or dah-dah = Daddy. Sometimes repeated over and over.
mah or mah-mah = Mommy. Again, sometimes repeated over and over.

The neat thing is that he understands what we're saying and with yes or no questions you can usually figure out what he wants. He doesn't do much for a negative response, but is usually quite enthusiastic about affirmative.

Now if you happen to spend time with Noah you can communicate thanks to this handy guide to Noahish.

A Day Off

Just when you thought it was safe to be home during the day, Wake County Public Schools brings us...a teacher workday. We plan to break it up a little bit with a family lunch at my office. Lily says that she wants to see where I hang up my coat, so she wants to see the office rather than meeting somewhere for lunch. I haven't decided if we'll eat in the cafeteria or go out.

Yesterday went well. It was a gray and cool day, so everything was done inside. I did take Lily and Noah grocery shopping yesterday after Noah's nap. We had a little scuffle with Noah's Harris Teeter balloon though. I had it tied to the cart and he wouldn't let go of it for me to load him in the car. Through the scuffle it came off the string and floated into space. Fortunately, there was a boy around 10 or so who gave Noah his balloon. It was very nice. Their mom also told him to take our cart for me. Little things like that really make the day better.

Getting Fruity

Thanks to Blue Cross and the Blue Points program I've had something of a dietary renaissance. If I eat 5 servings of fruits & vegetables combined daily for 5 days/week, I get 100 Blue Points. These points can ultimately be redeemed for legitimate things like restaurant gift cards, for example. This is in addition to the points that I already was getting for exercise.

As a result I've been bringing more fresh fruit into the house. They've had clementine oranges at Sam's, so we have been eating those all week. Noah loves them. In fact, yesterday he mostly ate fruit for lunch and dinner.

Remember how he was a little bound up? Well, it hasn't been such an issue lately. It seems like it's feast or famine with him these days. That goes for his mood too. He's been kind of grouchy in the afternoons lately.

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday is that his vocabulary is slowly increasing. I took them to Petsmart for doggie day camp. Lily stayed and watched the dogs while Noah traipsed around the store. Periodically he would stop and yell, "Lily! Lily!" At least I think that's what he was yelling. It's still a little hard to tell with him.

Note: I apologize for the poop-related posts lately. Those of you with kids understand and those of you without will just have to wait for more interesting stuff. Sorry.

Breakfast

Amanda needed a break today, so I took the kids to Krispy Kreme for breakfast. We then ran a few other errands which took up the better part of the morning. Noah and Lily held up pretty well, though Noah got pretty fussy at the end. Still, it was great for Amanda to get a break.

The rest of the day will hopefully be pretty uneventful. I do have a bit of good news to report in general though. Amanda found our camera yesterday. It had been missing for over a month. It turns out it was behind something on the TV cabinet. I'm glad because that's $200 I wasn't looking forward to spending to replace it.